Subfonds THS 9 - Inquiry to the development plan for the City of Oxford.

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THS 9

Title

Inquiry to the development plan for the City of Oxford.

Date(s)

  • 1970 (Creation)

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Subfonds

Extent and medium

9 files: 1st 29 pages, 2nd 61 pages, 3rd 55 pages, 4th 43 pages, 5th 67 pages, 6th 60 pages, 12th 84 pages, 13th 81 pages, 14th 76 pages.

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(1901 - 1978)

Biographical history

Thomas Sharp was a key figure in town planning in the mid-twentieth century. The concepts he developed in his writings and plans have been of enduring significance and influence on thinking about planning and design for both practitioners and academics in the UK and beyond. He was a major influence on the development of ideas of townscape and the significance of his thinking on historic cities stands comparison with, for example, Camillo Sitte.

The mid-twentieth century was a period when public and professional interest in planning was at an all-time high. Sharp was a key figure in defining thinking about the forms that town and countryside should take; in reconciling existing and valued character with modernity, and; in making these arguments accessible. His book Town Planning (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1940) is the most widely-read ever on the subject and followed earlier influential polemical works. The plans he produced in the 1940s, primarily for historic cities such as Oxford, Exeter and Durham, were also hugely influential and are significant aesthetic artefacts in the history of plan-making, all the more remarkable for being produced in a period of austerity.

Interest in Sharp and his ideas has grown markedly in recent years with, for example, the rise of 'New Urbanism' in the USA and of the significance of design issues in UK planning. Furthermore, there is a new-wave of scholarly interest in the post-war reconstruction planning and architecture of the mid-twentieth century as a distinctive period in planning and design, particularly focused around reconstruction plans and their partial implementation.

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Public Inquiry into proposals for alterations or additions to development plan for the City of Oxford and application for a hotel on land at Folly Bridge, Oxford. File numbers 1-6; 12-14.

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